Tuesday, December 31, 2019

2020 MCAT Costs and Fee Assistance Program

In 2020, the basic cost of the MCAT is $320. This price includes both the test itself and the distribution of your scores to all the medical schools on your list. Additional fees must be paid for test date and/or test center changes. If these costs are burdensome for you, you may be eligible for the Fee Assistance Program, which significantly reduces the cost of the MCAT. The tables below provide details on all the costs associated with the MCAT, including the FAP.   MCAT Fees and Registration Zones There are three registration â€Å"zones† for the MCAT: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The Gold Zone offers the greatest flexibility and the lowest cost. However, the Gold Zone closes 29 days before the exam date, so you must register early to receive these benefits. MCAT Fees Gold Zone Silver Zone Bronze Zone Registration Deadline 29 days prior to exam date 15 days prior to exam date 8 days prior to exam date Scheduling Fee $320 $320 $375 Date or Test Center Reschedule Fee $95 $160 N/A Cancellation Refund $160 N/A N/A International Fee $115 $115 $115 Source: American Association of Medical Colleges MCAT Fee Assistance Program If you qualify for the AAMCs Fee Assistance Program, you can take the MCAT at a reduced cost. These reduced fees follow the same tiered registration model (Gold, Silver, Bronze) as the standard MCAT fees. MCAT Fees with FAP Gold Zone Silver Zone Bronze Zone Registration Deadline 29 days prior to exam date 15 days prior to exam date 8 days prior to exam date Scheduling Fee $130 $130 $185 Date or Test Center Reschedule Fee $50 $75 N/A Cancellation Refund $65 N/A N/A International Fee $115 $115 $115 Source: American Association of Medical Colleges There are other benefits of the Fee Assistance Program, too. FAP recipients receive AMCAS application fee waivers, complimentary access to the AAMCs database of medical school admissions information, and complimentary access to all of the AAMCs online MCAT prep materials. The Fee Assistance Program is open to U.S. citizens, U.S Nationals, lawful permanent residents of the United States, and those who have been granted refugee status/asylum status/deferred action under DACA by the U.S. government. To qualify, you must meet strict financial need requirements determined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty level guidelines. If your application qualifies, you will be required to submit financial documentation. Additional MCAT Costs There are several unofficial, hidden costs to the MCAT, such as traveling to the test center and taking time off from a part-time job to study. While you cant eliminate these costs entirely, you can make them more manageable by planning ahead. Make sure to sign up for the MCAT as early as possible in order to benefit from the Gold Zones lower fees. If you have to travel to a test center or even stay overnight at a hotel, make those plans as soon as you can, as well. Choose your MCAT prep materials strategically by seeking out free MCAT resources and choosing high-quality MCAT prep courses that will give you the most bang for your buck.

Monday, December 23, 2019

The Nothingness Of Personality By Jorge Luis Borges

Blake Pendleton 9 November 2017 Prof. Trocchia Phil 101-0006 In his work, The Nothingness of Personality, Jorge Luis Borges toys with the notion of the self, contending there is no whole self. He goes further in stating that, â€Å"[h]e who defines personal identity as the private possession of some depository of memories is mistaken† (1). However, I would argue that memories do in fact play a substantial role in developing human personalities, and that without memories, our self and personality is incomplete. While Borges is correct in stating that our memories are fleeting and that one never completely remembers an event in its entirety, the feelings and emotions accompanying such event impact the formation of our identities. While life†¦show more content†¦What Borges fails to recognize in this argument is the far-reaching implications on a person that stem from the experience of the event rather than simply the event itself. For instance, the aforementioned soldier will undoubtedly have an imprecise recollection of the eve nts that transpired during combat, but the emotional impacts of everything he or she witnessed will last much longer on personality than any physical injuries or actions. What this means is that the specific details are not as important as Borges makes them out to be; the emotional strain and overall premise of the memory is far more substantial. Attempting to further gain credibility in his argument, and in contrast to my argument, Borges argues that fear and emotions cannot constitute the self because they are fleeting or short-lived. To this he states, â€Å"I, for example, am not the visual reality that my eyes encompass, for if I were, darkness would kill me and nothing would remain in me to desire the spectacle of the world, or even to forget it† (5). To this, I will respond in saying that Borges is correct in that the fear and emotions we experience at one point in our life do not withstand the tale of time. As time progresses, specific details in an event fade from ou r memory, but there will always be that constant underlying feeling a person experiences when reminded of a particularly fearful memory. Again, the specific details Borges focuses on do not

Sunday, December 15, 2019

English Romanticism And The Sentimental Free Essays

Topic: English Romanticism and the sentimental novel What is Romanticism? The portrayal of emotion and imagination The portrayal of the beauties of nature Settings that are exotic (ex: old castles, mansions, etc. ) Interest in unnatural realms of legends, folk superstitions, and ghosts Emotional intensity in language and characters Intense interest in nature’s fierceness and/or beauty Hero who revolts against social norms in his/her society Romanticism in Frankincense Victor Frankincense’s creature is the romantic hero because of his rejection from his â€Å"normal† society. Because of his appearance, he cannot be accepted into society. We will write a custom essay sample on English Romanticism And The Sentimental or any similar topic only for you Order Now Victor Frankincense attempts to go against nature’s limitations by making his creature What is a sentimental novel? A sentimental novel celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. How is Frankincense a sentimental novel? Walton has sympathy for Victor’s misfortunes How to cite English Romanticism And The Sentimental, Papers

Friday, December 6, 2019

Gershwin Porgy and Bess Essay Example For Students

Gershwin: Porgy and Bess Essay American culture has in its short history amassed a modest crop of canonical chestnuts. These enduring achievements may dull the senses or tax the spirit, but nevertheless attention must be paid, usually in a classroom. Death of a Salesman is of course one such necessary acculturator, as are other learning tools for teens like The Bell Jar, The Red Badge of Courage, Appalachian Spring and American Gothic. Mark Twain fortunately killed off Cooper and his Leatherstocking Tales for all time in his delightful essay James Fenimore Coopers Literary Offenses, but I think that The Scarlet Letter and Walden still get assigned to prove that Americans were thinking and writing and reading as far back as 1850, and that Uncle Toms Cabin remains in print because the country is still reeling from the slavery question. I consider myself fortunate to have given Leaves of Grass a second try last summer after disdainfully speed-reading it in college, and I hope to be similarly staggered someday by the inescapable Moby Dick, which I hated at 19. Yet I fear, after numerous attempts, that Ill never appreciate Porgy and Bess. I respect it, I suppose I am glad its there, but the truth is it doesnt move me either as a work of musical theatre or as Americana. On the plus side, its ambitious but not, thank God, pretentious; its musical textures and orchestrations are thrilling throughout. But I much prefer listening to Diahann Carroll sing Summertime or Barbra Streisand sing I Loves You, Porgy out of context than I do hearing the entire score or sitting through a performance, whether it be at Radio City Music Hall or at the Met. Despite its status as an American classic, Porgy and Bess has not gone without detractors since its premiere in 1935. Genre critics have at last given up attempts at classification, letting Gershwins own ruling, a folk opera, stand, but some music critics still find it crudely written, inauthentic and just plain long. Theatre people dont always like the recitatives and would like to hear more consonants from the singers. Over the years, in varying degrees of intensity, critics and performers alike have found the piece racist, offensively stereotypical and demeaning to African Americans. The dicey fact of the matter is that Gershwin and his co-librettists, brother Ira and DuBose Heyward, were white and who were they to dramatize and perhaps pass judgment on the doings in Charlestons Catfish Row, a southern locale now as mythically redolent as Belle Reve or Yoknapatawpha? FOR STARTERS, AND ONE COULD go on, consider the pieces four principal roles: Porgy is a cripple and a beggar. Bess and her red dress are an unreconstructed advertisement for the sins of the flesh, and although she does reform with Porgy, she is booby-trapped by her appetites and a libretto that announces from the start that a woman is a sometime thing. The hulking stevedore Crown, clearly drawn as a menace II society, kills Robbins with a baling hook in a crap game and sexually brutalizes Bess. Sportin Life is a gambler, a drug dealer, a blasphemer and, one may infer from the conclusion, will pimp Bess once they reach New York. While its facile to take potshots at operatic characters writ large, Porgy and Bess has from its inception been praised for its realistic depiction of black life. Does all of that brilliant music offset the libretto? European audiences can rhapsodize about local color and folk naivete, but that is their luxury. Americans cannot squint the problems away, and th ey cannot shut their ears to the white approximation of black American English that the characters are singing. .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec , .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .postImageUrl , .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec , .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:hover , .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:visited , .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:active { border:0!important; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:active , .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u43fde6b8cdc96e234ef980c59fc158ec:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Does Richard the third deserve his reputation? EssaySo what is one to do with Porgy and Bess? On it rolls, launching great careers and breaking house records all over the world. The Breen-Davis tour of Porgy and Bess in the 50s, which counted Leontyne Price, William Warfield and Maya Angelou among its roster of performers, was practically an arm of the state department, the first American cultural offering to penetrate the Iron Curtain and play Leningrad and Moscow (with stops in Poland and Yugoslavia). It was the first American opera to play La Scala in 1954, and in 1986, assumed similar status at the hallowed Glyndebourne Festival in England. (Can Bayreuth be far off?) Directed by Trevor Nunn and conducted by Simon Rattle with the London Philharmonic, the Glyndebourne production threw off a full-length recording, was restaged at the Royal Opera House in 1992 and has just been filmed for public television by Nunn for American Playhouse and Great Performances, a joint venture that aptly bridges, as does the work itself, the worlds of theatre and classical music. DIFFERENT PRODUCTIONS over the years have been lauded or criticized for being too grand or too modest, too opera or too Broadway. No stranger to musical spectacle when thats what the occasion warrants, Nunn retains all of the score except The Buzzard Song and the top of Act 3, scene iii, and sort of goes on studio location in John Gunters Catfish Row, shifting scenes indoors and cutting to the ocean when the fishermen sail out. Unfortunately, there is no shot that firmly establishes Catfish Row the way the shows monolithic sets usually do, so the viewer is spatially dislocated about how the community is set up and where people are headed. In the enormous crowd scenes, theres enough stage business for three Renaissance fairs or eight productions of Oliver! and therein lies a frustrating contradiction in filmed opera. A film ideally allows viewers to see what they cannot see from a loge seat; zooming in on intimate details, however, negates the essential prerogative of opera to be gra nd, and Porgy and Bess is not an intimate opera. The drama rests in the music, not in our ability to see the box-cars that the doomed Robbins throws in the crap game. What Im trying to say is that opera thrives in the long-shot, with cuts to full-body on the arias staying in close subordinates the music. Theres also the problem of opera singing on film. The actors appear to be lip-synching to their pre-recorded voices, and some are better at it than others. Cynthia Haymons Bess is truly disorienting; while her incredible voice is blowing the roof off of Porgys hut on the soundtrack, her masklike face remains impassive, unexpressive. Theres no wrinkle on her brow, no how, and the film consequently lacks a dramatic center. The only character to benefit from Nunns predeliction for closeups is Sportin Life. Nunn is careful to let us watch Sportin Life watch the action. He has never seemed so less a minstrel clown and more a sick, evil destroyer who clearly outpaces Crown in menace. In his interpretation, Nunn has taken Porgys cart and goat away from him and given him crutches, explaining that he wanted to deemphasize Porgys infirmities and make him more of a believable alternative for Bess. This makes some sense when you consider the seductiveness of Gregg Bakers Crown (for once the actor isnt built like a polar bear, and the What you want wid Bess? scene is a highlight of the film). On the other hand, why rob Bess of her ability to fall in love with a cripple? I DIDNT MISS PORGYS GOAT until the ending. Usually, when Porgy heads off after Bess in the conclusion, it does feel like the saddest story ever told. Nunns choice to have Porgy throw off his crutches and attempt a step as a whole man through the portals of Catfish Row replaces pathos with unearned, yes-I-can positivism. On his cart (with or without the goat) you knew Porgy would never get there, and Bess feels like the Holy Grail, worth wanting, making Porgy the noblest, the most tragic of questing fools. If Porgy seems strong enough or whole enough to reach New York and find her, then you also fear he should be smart enough to realize Bess is not worth the trip. And if hes not smart enough to figure that out, then hes tragically dumb. .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d , .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .postImageUrl , .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d , .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:hover , .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:visited , .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:active { border:0!important; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:active , .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uc0f66aedfa10ff0d28acc42dd9b7b36d:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Framing the fantasy: Amsterdam's Dogtroep brings street theater to new heights EssayAs I mentioned, its easier for me to admire Porgy and Bess as a songbook: great dramatic songs lifted from their problematic context for great voices in recital. Maybe my racial squeamishness is knee-jerk liberalism masking something else; maybe Id be less troubled overall if George Gershwin had lived long enough to fall in love with Their Eyes Were Watching God and collaborated with Zora Neale Hurston on that opera. I might be less troubled if Porgy, Bess, Crown and Sportin Life were enacting their tragic melodrama as disadvantaged whites, or were in Seville singing in French. I might rela x a bit if Anthony Daviss X had received the critical attention and commercial bookings that Nixon in China and The Ghosts of Versailles have in recent seasons. If only George Gershwin could have hung on to write more operas and field questions about his first one. GIVEN OUR LONG HISTORY of feeling culturally inferior to Europe, small wonder that the first accomplished American opera to come along the pike would be culturally overdetermined by necessity, and that we as a Second World nation would stake ourselves to its status as such. I just wish that the first, last and foremost American opera were not Porgy and Bess. When all is said and done when my critical stance is stripped away and my politically correct hackles are lowered and I come before the opera as might a child or a foreigner I think Porgy and Bess is boring. We all know its racist thats easy but I also think its boring. Its too long, duly moving but, oh, so slow, the recitatives seem beside the point, there are too many choral numbers, and even when it sounds great and how can it not? I never get all the words.